The study on “Cross-Cultural Analysis of English Textbook for Grade 10 and Suggestion of Supplementary Activities for Students’ Cross-Cultural Awareness” is a Minor Programme Master thesis. It is just aimed at examining the cultural content presented in the textbook and suggesting certain kinds of activities for raising students’ cross-cultural awareness.
Based on quantitative methods, the study gives a brief account of how culture is treated according to the modified checklists designed by Cortazzi and Jin, Hirsch et al. and Chastain. The main findings reveal that the textbook can be classified as an international target culture textbook in which students are exposed to more than one culture, although the English-speaking cultures are apparently dominant throughout the book. Some elements of cross-cultural comparison presented in the textbook ensure that the textbook, to various degrees, helps promote students’ cross-cultural awareness along with improving their four language skills. Another important part of the study is suggestion of supplementary activities that may be used to develop students’ cross-cultural awareness. Among a variety of activities used for culture teaching in the classroom, some are selected to integrate the development of students’ cross-cultural awareness into language teaching. They are activities that focus on creating an authentic environment, activities that help provide cultural information (cultural aside, cultural capsule, quiz) and activities that develop students’ cross-cultural awareness (culture assimilator, critical incidents, student research).
It is hoped that the findings of the study may help teachers adjust their culture teaching content and assist textbooks compilers in the future, although the analysis of Grade 10 textbook alone may not give the whole picture of how culture teaching is treated in Vietnamese high schools.